Training - Day One

Willow Enfield, District Twelve

"Good morning!" my mentor, Rosemary greets me, "Are you ready for your first day of training?"

"As ready as I'll ever be," I say, forcing a smile.

What else can I say? That I have no chance of winning even though I have some practical skills? That I would rather die than come face to face with another tribute because I'm too pathetic to even hurt anything? That my district partner terrifies me? That I'm even more terrified to meet the careers?

"Good." she says, "Remember what we talked about. Learn lots of practical survival skills like plant identification and hunting. Those skills will keep you alive because you will be able to find food without encountering the other tributes as often."

"Got it!" I say.

"Also, make sure to avoid showing off any talent you might have with any weapons. It will make you a target for the careers."

"Of course! I'll study plants, practise hunting and setting snares, and avoid the archery station."

It's not even technically hiding my talents. What good is it to be proficient at archery if you cry every time you kill a deer? It's not like I pose any threat to anybody in the arena. Even the youngest tiniest tribute could probably kill me if they wanted to. It's not like I could bring myself to stop them.

"Good. I just ordered food for breakfast. Make sure you eat everything. You'll need lots of energy going into the arena."

"Okay, thanks, Rosemary."

-/-

Okay, nine out of ten this time. Not bad. I just need to remember the difference between nightlock and boison berries. Both of these berries are native to District Twelve, so I know the differences between them fairly well. Boison berries make a refreshing snack and they are also delicious in jam, pies, and salad dressing. Nightlock, on the other hand, will kill you instantly. I've heard that anyone who eats it will drop dead the minute it touches their throat. Now I don't know if this is true or not. I've never tried to eat nightlock and it's not like I can ask anyone who has.

The difference in appearance is the hard part though because they look almost identical. I'm sure I know this though. I don't know why I can't remember it now. I remember my mother explaining it to me just as she did with all edible and poisonous plants. It was a slight difference in colour, I think. You're supposed to hold both of them up in the sunlight, or up to a lamp in here, and one of the berries is more purple while the other looks more red. I just can never remember which berry is which colour.

"Hey!" someone says from behind me, making me jump.

"Uh, hey! Sorry, I'm almost done here." I say as I turn around.

The girl shrugs, "It's all good. I was actually hoping that maybe you could help me because you seem to know what you're doing and I don't really know anything about plants."

"Yeah, sure!" I say, letting out a sigh of relief.

Since I'm no longer panicking, I take a moment to look at this stranger. She is petite and around the same height as me, but she looks more well-fed than the majority of District Twelve and something about her looks more glamorous. She has that same glow that tributes from career districts always seem to have. Her body language tells a different story though. She looks as scared as I've felt since I was reaped and she keeps fidgeting with her bracelet and looking around the room.

I hold up a green leafy plant. "This is wolfgrass. It's pretty common in District Twelve where I live. It's really healthy and is usually cooked into a soup. It can also be eaten by itself though, which will be really good in the arena."

The girl takes a notebook out of her pocket and starts writing something down.

"Is it cool if I take notes?" she asks quickly.

"Yeah, go for it!" I say.

"Thanks! This is really helpful!" she says, "I honestly don't really have any skills that would help me win."

"Me neither!" I say.

"That's not true. You seem to know a lot about plant identification and hunting. That'll keep you alive in the arena."

I shrug, "Let's hope so. And I'm sure you can learn some of these skills before you go into the arena. We still have three days, right?"

"Yeah, that's true! Would you mind helping me with this a little bit every day?"

"Sure! I'd be happy to!" I say, "I'm Willow, by the way."

"Nice to meet you! I'm Emily." she smiles at me.

-/-

Gold Stone, District One

"We should probably go introduce ourselves." Silver says.

She's probably right. We've all been casually sizing each other up while showing off our skills for the past hour.

"Yeah, we really should get things started. We'll need time to figure out our strategy."

We walk over to the sword station where the girl from District Two is hacking up a dummy.

"That's Adele Sun." Silver whispers to me, "Her brother won the 14th Quarter Quell last year and her sister won the Hunger Games the year before. She's trying to be the first person to win triple back-to-back Hunger Games with her siblings."

"Good to know. So should we try to talk to her now or wait for her to finish destroying all the dummies?"

"We should definitely wait." she says, "Oh, there's Ryker!" she tilts her head across the room to the axe station.

Adele's district partner is currently throwing axes at moving dummies. He hits all of the dummies perfectly in the chest. He looks like he could hold his own in a fight and he's clearly talented with an axe. Not that there was any doubt that the guy from District Two would join the careers, but he'll definitely make a great ally.

"Let's go introduce ourselves." I say, "It looks like he's almost done."

The lights on the remaining dummies go out as we approach him, which means he's done throwing axes for the next two minutes.

"Hey man!" I greet him, "I'm Gold and this is Silver. We're from District One."

He chuckles, "Silver and Gold, huh? Did you guys change your names so you'll get more sponsors as star-crossed lovers?"

Obviously neither of us wanted to go into the Hunger Games in the first place, considering the fact that we were kind of forced by Silver's crazy dad and everything, but I brush it off.

"Nah, just a weird coincidence." I shrug, "So, is the axe your favourite weapon?"

He shrugs, "I dunno. I took to it easily when I started training, but I don't really have a favourite weapon. I don't really have that thirst for killing that all you careers seem to have."

Wait, does he not want to join us?

"But you are a career tribute, right?" Silver asks, "Just a slightly unconventional career that prefers other methods than direct killing?"

"Wait, are you one of those creative tributes that puts on a show for the Capitol and gets a shit ton of sponsors?" I ask.

"I'm not a career tribute at all. The Capitol and the Hunger Games disgust me and career tributes like yourselves who support those things disgust me even more."

"Oh," Silver says, "I guess we'll go find some of the actual career tributes. Uh, sorry for bothering you."

He rolls his eyes and picks up his axe as the dummies finish resetting.

"Hey, Silver and Gold, right? I'm Adele, the future Victor of the 351st Hunger Games." Adele Sun chuckles from behind us.

"Hey Adele! It's so nice to meet you!" Silver smiles at her.

"We're assuming you're interested in being a career tribute, right?" I joke.

She laughs, "Of course! Did Ryker give you his speech about corruption and oppression and blah, blah, blah? Ooh, did he use the word 'slaughter'? He used that word like five times this morning. I wanted to stab myself."

We laugh along with her. "Nah, he just told us we disgust him."

"From Ryker, that's a compliment! It means you're competent career tributes who actually want to win."

"True!" Silver says, "We've both been training since we were ten."

"Same!" Adele says, "So what are your favourite weapons? Mine is obviously the sword."

"My best weapon is the spear, but I'm pretty decent with the sword, knives, and the bow and arrow too." I say, "And Silver has perfect accuracy with knives. She can also run really fast and we're both pretty strong swimmers."

"That's great! It sounds like we all know how to swim. So many careers don't use the pool at the training center and then any sign of water in the arena wipes out all of them except for the District Four tributes."

"Speaking of the District Four tributes," Silver says, "What do we think of them? Do we think they'll make good careers?"

"Yeah, I think the girl definitely shows promise. She's a strong swimmer and she seems to be good with a variety of weapons. The spear and trident are definitely her best weapons, but she seems to be pretty good with the axe and the bow and arrow too. She also seems to have decent survival skills."

"What about the guy?" I ask.

"Well, he looks strong and he's skilled with the trident and obviously a strong swimmer. He just seems a bit dopey and overly cocky. I don't know how long he'd last. I'm not saying we shouldn't invite him to join us. I actually think we should. His strength and skills with his trident would make him a great ally in the beginning and his stupidity would make him an easy kill when we get to that point."

Wow, she's really thought about this in depth. We'll definitely have to get a head start on splitting up with her once it gets to that point. Maybe even a little before that.

"Cool, it sounds like a plan!" I say.

A/N: So I decided to split this chapter in half just so it stayed about the same length as the other chapters in this story. The next chapter will pick up right where we left off on Day One through the eyes of another tribute!

What do you think of the possible alliances? Which one is your favourite so far?